Disposable fibrous dusting device



United States Patent 3,334,373 DISPOSABLE FIBROUS DUSTING DEVICE William Julius van Loo, .lr., Middlesex, and John Peter Dundon, Branchburg Township, Somerset County, N.J.,

assignors to American Cyanamid Company, Stamford,

Conn., a corporation of Maine N0 Drawing. Filed Apr. 7, 1965, Ser. No. 446,413

1 Claim. (Cl. 15-506) This invention relates to a disposable dusting device, and more particularly to a disposable fibrous dusting device containing thereon a soil retaining finish.

Soil retaining finishes and textile materials containing the same are disclosed in US. Patent 3,105,500. The textile materials contemplated by the aforesaid patent, those containing a substantial percent of cotton, i.e., at least 50%, were indicated as being preferred. Such materials were impregnated with the reaction product of essentially equim-olecular amounts of long chain anionic surface ac tive agents and long chain cationic surface active agents. Preferably, these reaction products were impregnated into the textile material in amounts of from about 2 to 5% based on the dry weight of the material, and such amounts provided an effective soil retaining finish without producing a finish which was readily transferred to objects being dusted therewith.

In addition to such dusting devices, others have currently appeared on the market containing silicones or silicone-wax combinations, and these have proved to be effective devices for attracting and retaining soil, particularly when compared with untreated dust cloths or materials.

Both the textile materials referred to and described in the aforesaid patent and those containing silicones or silicon-wax combinations suffer from certain deficiencies. Among these is the fact that they may be characterized as lacking in flexibility and softness, making them unsuitable for use in small crevices or on highly irregularly shaped objects.

In addition, dusting devices of non-woven fabrics are usually supplied in the form of a continuous roll of material which must be cut to size for use. Such form is inconvenient and presents the user with the necessity of having to cut the estimated lengths required and the possibility of incorrectly judging the required length, with the result that waste of the material is likely to occur.

As the attracted soil begins to build up on the dusting devices of non-woven fabrics, their effectiveness diminishes. Also, transfer of the finish from the fabric to an area being dusted results when high concentrations of soil retaining finishes are employed to extend effective useful life, with the consequence that the area being dusted becomes more attractive to soil than surfaces dusted by other methods or by the employment of devices not containing soil retaining finishes.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable dusting device which overcomes substantially all of the deficiencies of the prior art devices as they are enumerated above and provides a device which is economical, easy and elfioient to use, and which may be destroyed or disposed of after a single use, although devices capable of more than a single use are clearly contemplated.

3,334,373 Patented Aug. 8, 1967 In accordance with this invention, a disposable dusting device is provided which comprises a non-woven cellulosic sheet of material containing from about 7 to about 20% of the reaction product of essentially equim-olecular amounts of a long chain anionic surface active agent and a long chain cationic surface active agent, each of which component contains from about 20 to about 35 carbon atoms.

The preferred non-woven cellulosic sheet of material is creped tissue paper varying in weight from about 5 to about 25 pounds per 3000 square feet and preferably one having a weight of from about 8 to about 14 pounds per 3000 square feet in single-ply. The crepe for such paper may range from fine to coarse, :but preferably is fine, as typified by a stretch of from about 5 to about 30% before break and more particularly from about 12 to about 16%.

The creped tissue paper may be employed in single-ply or multi-ply, but preferably is employed in double-ply. It will be appreciated that the processing or impregnation of the creped tissue may commence with the paper in double-ply or alternatively may start with the paper in single-ply followed by later conversion to double-ply, as for example, by folding.

The soil retaining finish as indicated is an essentially equimolecular amount of a long chain anionic surface active component and a long chain cationic surface active component. Such reaction products are described in US. Patent 3,105,500, referred to above. In accordance with this invention, each of the components should, however, have about 20 to about 35 carbon atoms and a particularly advantageous reaction product is that produced by reacting the anionic component, sodium bis(tridecyl)sulfosuccinate, with the cationic component, stearamidopropyl dimethyl 2-hydroxyethyl ammonium nitrate.

The soil retaining finish is applied to the creped tissue paper as a non-aqueous solution in amounts varying from between about 7.5 to about 20%, based on the weight of the tissue, and preferably between about 10 and about 20%, based on the weight thereof. In this connection, it has been determined that for creped tissue paper of the type contemplated by this invention, the above range of anionic and cationic reaction product is necessary to insure efliciency in soil pick-up and to minimize soil attracting tendencies of the dusted surface through transfer of the finish thereto.

As noted, the soil retaining finish is applied as a nonaqueous solution in accordance with the teaching of the above referred to United States patent. The particular non-aqueous solvents found desirable for producing the dusting service of the present invention includes the glycols and the lower alkanols, such as methanol, ethanol, the propanols and the butanols, either alone or in combination with one another.

For obtaining suitable and workable formulations for coating the particular substrate of the present invention, it was found that the'amount of solvent employed should vary from about 10 to about 35% based on the total Weight of the formulation employed. More specifically, the amount of solvent employed should be such as to give the desired viscosity to the treating formulation. Under desirable conditions of coating the preferred substrate, the viscosity range of coating composition will vary from about to about 1000 centipoises, and more particu- 3 larly from about 250 to about 750 centipoises when measured at 60 C. with a Brookfield Viscometer, Model LVF, employing the No. 2 spindle at 60 rpm.

The tissues may be impregnated with the soil retaining finish by a variety of conventional procedures such as dipping, spraying, coating, and the like. Because of the limitations of the particular paper type and the nature of the finished product, it is preferred that the finish be applied by paper coating procedures. Such methods of treatment have the advantage of maintaining a high degree of paper strength during processing, of carefully controlling the amount and uniformity of distribution of the soil retaining finish, and of concentrating the applied finish on one face of a tissue paper so as to produce in a final product the most efficient use of the applied finish. Where the paper is processed in the form of doubleor multi-ply construction, it is preferred to treat both exposed faces of such construction with the soil retaining finish for optimum performance of the finished product. In such cases, the coating composition may be applied to both faces of the paper construction in tandem operations prior to solvent evaporation or, alternatively, the coating composition may be applied to one face, the solvent evaporated, and the cycle repeated a second time for the other face.

After the application of the soil retaining finish, the solvent is evaporated from the paper. This may be accomplished at ambient temperatures or by the application of heat through the use of dry cans, dryers and the like.

Following application of the finish and solvent evaporation, the treated paper is ready for cutting, folding, and packaging. Also in these final operations, if desired, the plies may be crimped or in other manner be caused to adhere together, although the manner of folding can produce this desired effect.

By cutting to convenient size and packaging a suitable number in a dispensing box, a highly desirable and truly disposable dusting device may be obtained in a practical and attractive form.

Materials that are compatible may be employed with the essential components of this composition, so far as they do not interfere significantly with the desirable properties of the dusting device. Thus, disinfectants, perfumes, coloring agents and the like may be used accordingly.

In order to illustrate the presentinvention the following examples are given primarily by way of illustration. No specific details or enumerations contained therein should be construed as limitations on the present invention except insofar as they appear in the appended claim. All parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specifically designated.

Example 1 A composition of matter comprising the reaction product of equimolecular proportions of stearamidopropyl 2- hydroxyethyl dimethyl ammonium nitrate and sodium bis- (tridecyl) sulfosuccinate in hexane was applied to tissue paper by padding so as to deposit various add-ons of said composition thereto. The treated tissues were allowed to dry so as to evaporate the hexane. The treated tissues as Well as the untreated counterpart were tested for soil pick-up in the following manner.

The treated tissues and an untreated counterpart were cut into 8 x 8 inch squares and weighed to the nearest tenth of a milligram. The tissues were then placed in a cardboard box, 9 x 9 x 15 inches in dimensions. A capsule constructed of paper and containing a number of holes and 0.5 gram of synthetic soil described in the American Dyestuff Reporter, 45, 190 (1956) was also placed in the box. The box was then sealed and placed in a turnble dryer made by Cummings Landau Laundry Machinery Company, Inc., Brooklyn, New York, which operated at 40 revolutions per minute. The box was rotated for 20 minutes at room temperature. The box was then removed from the tumble dryer, the tissues were removed from the box, and the difference in weights between the soiled and unsoiled tissues indicated the amounts of soil picked up.

The results are shown in Table I below.

TABLE I Composition (exclusive of hexane) applied, percent:

Tumble test soil pickup (grams) The results shown, which represent the average of three individual tests on each sample, indicate increasing soil pickup with increasing applied concentration of composition.

Example 2 The composition of Example 1 was applied to each of the faces of creped tissue paper in double-ply so that a total of 15.2 and 23.8% add-on exclusive of solvent was effected in separate trials, except that ethylene glycol was the solvent employed and a paper coating device was employed instead of a padder.

The treated tissues along with an untreated counterpart were tested for soil pickup in the manner described in Example 1, except that reflectance values were determined initially and after soiling, instead of weights. The tissues were folded so that four thicknesses were exposed to the search unit of a Photovolt Reflectometer, Model 610, to insure proper background density. Four readings were taken on each tissue and an average value calculated. The reflectance values were obtained in the same manner after soiling, and the Soiling Index was then calculated in the following manner:

Apparent Soil of Treated Tissue where R and R are the fractions of light reflected from soiled and unsoiled test pieces, respectively. Thus, a soiling index of 1.0 or greater indicates that the treated tissue has an equal or greater aflinity for soil than the untreated tissue. The result obtained are shown in Table II below.

In order to determine the tendency of a treated tissue to transfer the soil attracting finish to the surface being dusted, the following Soil Redeposition Test was conducted, using the apparatus as described next. To a suitable baseplate were mounted two parallel metal bars at a height of about two inches from the level of the baseplate. Mounted to the bars was a small embroidery hoop filled in the center with resilient material. This hoop could slide along the bars for a total distance of about 18 inches in a plane parallel to that of the baseplate. On the embroidery hoop was mounted a portion of the tissue to be tested so that the tissue was facing the baseplate. Between the tissue and the baseplate was inserted a piece of white cardboard which was elevated sufliciently to make contact with the tissue, which in turn was held against the surface of the cardboard by the resilient material making up the center of the hoop. The cardboard was 6x12 inches and the tissue was brought back and forth across the 12 inch dimension of the cardboard five times. A new area of tissue was now mounted in the hoop and an additional five strokes were made across the cardboard. A total of four tissue areas were brought in contact with the cardboard and a total of 20 strokes were made in contact with the cardboard. The cardboard was now removed and mounted with one end on a Lab-Jack in closed position and the other end on the laboratory bench. One gram of the synthetic soil previously described was equally distributed along the edge of the cardboard on the Lab-Jack so as to encompass the path of the tissue. The Lab-Jack was now opened gradually so as to raise the edge of the cardboard containing the soil. The Lab-Jack was raised until the soil traveled to the other end of the cardboard. The cardboard was then removed, tapped lightly to remove soil not held by the cardboard, and sprayed gently with a clear lacquer to hold the trapped soil in place for subsequent reflectance measurements. For comparison, the reflectance of an unexposed cardboard sprayed with clear lacquer was employed.

The results obtained are also shown in Table II below.

TABLE II Composition Soiling Soil Redeposition (exclusive of sol- Index Test Reflectance vent) Applied (Percent) (Percent) Example 3 A sample of the tissue of Example 2 containing 15.2% of soil retaining finish was compared in performance against a non-woven fabric treated with an unknown amout of a soil retaining finish consisting of a silicone and a wax employing the tests described in Example 2. The results are given in Table III below.

These results clearly indicate the superiority of the product of this invention in preventing rapid resoiling of dusted surfaces over a product containing a different type of composition as the soil retaining finish thereon. The product of the present invention still retains a practically useful soil index characteristic.

We claim:

A disposable dusting device comprising a sheet of twoply creped tissue paper, the individual plies of which weigh from about 8 to 14 pounds per 3000 square feet and are characterized by a stretch of from about 12 to about 16%, said tissue containing about 10 to about 20% of the reaction product of essentially equimolecular amounts of the anionic surface active agent, sodium bis (tridecyl) sulfosuccinate and the cationic surface active agent, stearamidopropyl dimethyl 2-hydroxyethyl ammonium nitrate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,682,346 8/ 1928 Lorenz.

1,851,811 3/1932 Christie.

2,495,066 1/1950 Jones l5506 2,673,364 3/1954 Diveley 15506 X 2,974,339 3/1961 Keydel 15-506 3,105,500 10/1963 Wilson et al. l31--208 3,121,249 2/1964 Aflleck et al. 15-506 CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

R. L. BLEUTGE, Assistant Examiner. 

